The invention relates to an electromotive furniture drive having a number of adjusting drives for electromotive movement of at least one movable furniture component relative to another furniture component, a control device and a communication unit coupled to the control device for receiving wireless signals of a remote control, wherein the adjusting drives are actuated in response to received wireless signals. The invention further relates to methods for controlling an electromotive furniture drive and a piece of furniture with an electromotive furniture drive.
To control the adjusting drives of electromotive furniture drives, handsets are common, which are coupled, for example, to the control device via a cable. Such handsets are reliable, but inflexible to use due to the cable. For electromotive furniture drives, wireless handsets, which are more flexible and convenient to use, are alternatively used more widely. A combination of both operating options is described in document WO 2006/039929 A2. In this case, a communication unit is arranged on a cable-bound handset, which receives wireless signals from a remote control and transmits them to the control device. The wireless transmission takes place via infrared light in this case.
In the meantime, furniture drives are also known in which radio transmission is used instead of an infrared transmission. This offers the advantage, for example, that mobile devices such as smartphones, by using a dedicated program (“app”), can be used as a remote control, as these are usually equipped with suitable wireless transmission equipment (communication units), for example, in order to enable performing communication according to the Bluetooth or WLAN standard.
Whereas in the infrared transmission according to the document WO 2006/039929 A2 a control of the adjusting drives is only possible in the field of view, in radio-based transmissions an (unwanted) operation can occur, however, even outside the field of view, e.g. from a neighboring room. This can lead in the worst case to an impairment or even injury to a person who uses the electromotively adjustable furniture.